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I didn’t intend to go to Austria. Seriously. After leaving the cruise ship in Venice, the plan was to take a train to Lucerne, Switzerland and spend the weekend in the Alps. What were the odds that all the trains from Italy to everywhere in Switzerland would be totally sold out???

Stuck at the train station in Milan, Jennifer and I made a split decision. We would take a train over to Innsbruck, Austria and spend the night before going over to Switzerland the following day.

We arrived in Innsbruck around 9pm, tired, cold and lugging all our baggage. We found a pension with a twin room for 30 Euros, so we booked it and called it a night. The next morning, we decided to do a mini tour of the city before boarding our train to Switzerland at 1pm. As soon as we left the pension, this is what we saw:

The Austrian Alps were towering over the city with a fresh dusting of snow! The view was so amazing, that we just stood there on the sidewalk gaping for quite a while. Eventually our stomachs complained, so we went into a bakery and grabbed some breakfast.

We then booked ourselves a ticket on a city tour bus, just to get a quick view of the town. This tour was only 3 euros.

The bus took us to parks, the city hall and eventually up a hill to see the Ambras Castle. We were having so much fun at the castle that we didn’t keep watch on the time, and bus left without us! Stranded on the hill, we did the only thing that two backpackers would do. We walked all the way back to the train station. The journey took 2 hours, but the views we saw were worth it! See below:

Made friends with the locals…

And I stuffed my face again!

I did a city tour, got stranded and saw some of the most amazing views all in 5 hours! This detour turned out to be so much better than I ever could have imagined! Sometimes, the best of plans go wrong. This doesn’t mean that your trip won’t be epic regardless! Happy travels!!!

The Southern Coast of Italy is a seriously breathtaking place, where some travelers never bother to explore. Everyone ooohs and aaahs over the major cities like Venice, while others remain unheard of to most international ears. Before planning my trip, I haven’t heard of Ravenna, Bari, nor Polignano a Mare, yet I ended up in all three within a week’s time!

Buying train tickets

The cruise ship stopped at Bari, and things were rather quiet in town, so my new friends and I decided to jump on a train and head for Polignano a Mare for a few hours. The journey was simple enough, entailing a bus from the port to the train station Bari Centrale, where we bought tickets for a round trip to the coastal town.

After rolling through the lovely seaside villages, and passing by fields and fields of olives we eventually arrived in Polignano a Mare. We asked some locals for the direction to the cliffs where we wanted to see, and off we went. It was Autumn in Italy, but given the fact that we were at the coastline, the wind felt very chilly, and as usual I was unprepared wearing a short pink dress! Bummer.

My chills were soon forgotten however, as the lovely town and beautiful seaside views blew me away. Enjoy!